Will the Olympics Come Back to the US?

2024 is eleven years away but that hasn’t deterred the US Olympic Committee (USOC) from thinking about the future. After a two repeated failed bid attempts (New York City in 2012 and Chicago 2016), the USOC recently sent letters to 35 mayors, inviting them to consider bidding for the 2024 Olympics.

“Our objective in this process is to identify a partner city that can work with us to present a compelling bid to the IOC and that has the right alignment of political, business and community leadership,” USOC CEO Scott Blackmun said in the letter.

While this does not guarantee the USOC will officially bid for the 2024 games, this is their first step testing the waters and interest level. The feedback and interest level of each city’s response will help determine if the US could potentially host its fifth Summer Olympics (previous US host cities include: 1904 – St. Louis, MO, 1932 – Los Angeles, CA, 1984 – Los Angeles, CA, & 1996 – Atlanta, GA).

The International Olympic Committee will vote on the 2024 Games sometime in 2017, giving the USOC four years to prepare – and they’ll need it. The US is not alone in their expressed interest in winning the 2024 games, Paris; Rome; Doha, Dubai; and Durban, South Africa have all thrown their hats in the ring. For more information on the USOC’s letter, please read more here